On September 1, the Princeton Board of Education
passed a resolution to vote on a bond referendum worth
over $85 million intended to renovate school facilities.
The proposed renovations, if passed in full, would impact
Princeton Middle School, PHS, and each of the four
PPS elementary schools by modernizing aging district
buildings and expanding PPS’s capacity to accommodate
an increasing student population.

The projected spike in student population is a result of
the municipality of Princeton complying with New Jersey’s
affordable housing requirements via the construction of
multiple residential developments across the township,
the largest being those adjacent to the Princeton Shopping
Center. Moreover, on October 18, the state mandated
municipalities across New Jersey to meet specific housing
obligations: Princeton is calculated to currently need 60
affordable housing units, with an additional 276 in total
over the next decade. As such, the district expects an even
greater influx of students, which the BOE purports will
be beyond the current capacity of PPS.

“We, as a community, know that there’s been some
affordable housing mandates and that the ... housing that
Princeton was required to build resulted in about seven
new developments that were approved by the council
and are now underway and being built around town,”
said Beth Behrend, an executive BOE member.

If approved, the BOE’s proposal for a bond referendum
— where the local government asks for a vote from the
public to approve or reject a project — would allow the
government to borrow (via bonds) funding to complete
the project. Princeton Township residents will vote on
this referendum on January 28, 2025. To ensure that the
public has a greater degree of flexibility surrounding
the parts of the proposal they support, the BOE has
divided it into three parts, each of which will be voted
on independently.

“There’ll be three questions on the bond referendum,
and question one has to pass for question two to pass,
and questions one and two have to pass for question
three to pass as well,” said BOE member Susan Kanter.
“Since I’ve been in Princeton, that [hasn’t been] how
referendums have gone out, so it’ll be new to the public
to have that choice.”

The first proposal section, or “question,” would renew
Community Park Elementary facilities and install
small-scale ventilators at PHS, along with a broader
HVAC system. Although the improvements would cost
approximately $37 million, savings from the new HVAC
may total $150,000 to $200,000 annually.

“The renovation will encompass the building’s HVAC
system, including the chillers, the boilers, and the air
handling units,” according to the PPS website. “This work
will bring these outdated systems up to par with those at
the elementary and middle schools."

If the first question were to be approved,
Princeton residents would then vote on the
second question, which costs $38.3 million
and largely consists of changes to PMS
infrastructure. However, this question
would also remodel the Numina Art
Gallery and transform current district tech
offices to be used for student instruction.
The third question of the proposal, worth
nearly $13 million, is focused entirely
on constructing more classrooms and
enlarging existing facilities at Littlebrook
Elementary.

“The school district does not operate
in a vacuum, and we are aware of other
recent impacts to the taxpayer. After much
discussion, the Board and administration
believe that a three-question format is
the best approach to let voters decide
their additional level of investment in
the public schools,” said BOE president
Dafna Kendal.

Behrend and Kanter emphasized that the
state, rather than the municipality, would
pay for significant parts of the proposal;
approximately 15 percent of the question
one and two funds would come from
New Jersey. If all three questions were to
pass, owners of Princeton homes with an
average assessed value of $853,000 would
see an estimated increase of $532 yearly
for 27 years of financing.

BOE members disavowed any form
of advocacy from other members,
emphasizing the importance of voter input
in the January decision.

“Our job is just to put together the
solutions, and we’ve worked really hard on
it for many years, and had some really good
professionals advising us,” said Behrend.
“We’ve had a lot of forums with the public
… it’s been a really collaborative process.
We all learned a lot, and I think we all
feel pretty good about the solutions we’ve
come to, and now putting it out there for
the voters to consider.”

BOE passes resolution to hold $85 million referendum

Latinos Unidos is one of many culture-centered clubs at Princeton-High-School. On June 3rd, the club hosted their annual festival to celebrate Latin American culture. The event, which took place on the PHS front lawn, offered traditional food, music, and activities from different parts of Latin America, for PHS students as well as parents. The festival, along with the club in general, is a way for members of the PHS community to connect on a cultural level while learning more about Latin American cultures.
“We hold events such as these to bring the community together and encourage others to get insight on what our club does and what it is about,” said Valeria Trullijo, a member of the club.
Leaders and members of the club must be able to overcome the obstacles that come with the process of the event’s organization, one of these being complications regarding the matter of funding.
“Everything costs money. And we were trying to fundraise. Luckily, the PREA, which is the teacher union, really sponsors us. And we're grateful for that. But finding that support is always a challenge,” said Spanish teacher Idania Rodriguez-Mejia, a leader of Latinos Unidos.
Latinos Unidos tries to organize at least one big annual event, typically at the end of the school year, in order to draw attention to the club for the coming year. The event also aims to make members of PHS’s Latin American community feel more welcomed within Princeton. 
“[Princeton is] a white dominated [town]. So as a Latino, I'm super grateful to be able to speak both languages, Spanish and English,” says Osbaldo Moralez, the club president. “But [for a] Latino who only knows Spanish, it's really hard to get access to things. [Latinos Unidos] is able to show them that they have support. I hope they can see that there are people that are behind them that are able to support them to make sure that they're not alone. And that for me is the goal [of the event].”

Behind the scenes of this year's Festival Latino

Begining on Monday, April 8, at 2:09 p.m., the moon’s shadow darkened the grounds of PHS as a solar eclipse traveled from Texas to Maine. Although Princeton was not in the path of totality, it did experience 90 percent eclipse, with peak totality at 3:24 p.m.. Students gathered outside PHS to experience the celestial event, observing the solar eclipse with viewer cards, thin cards with solar-filter cutouts that block ultraviolet and infrared lights, provided by the school in partnership with the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) organization at Princeton University. 
Dr. Joy Barnes-Johnson, Science Supervisor for Grades 6–12, initiated the process of communicating with teachers earlier this year to plan for the viewing of the solar eclipse as a part of her vision to make this school year more memorable for science students within PPS. 
“How are we going to help every child experience science in a meaningful way? This year, we’ve had two celestial events. We had the partial eclipse in October, and then there’s this one,” said Barnes-Johnson. “My primary role as the supervisor is to cast vision in the beginning and make sure that we have a process in place to bring things into alignment with our vision.”
Getting solar eclipse viewers for students across the district was a collective effort between Barnes-Johnson, Littlebrook teacher Martha Friend, former PPS teacher Dr. Steven Carson, and Princeton University. 
“Dr. Carson is a veteran teacher here in Princeton. He’s got ... relationships with the faculty at the university. So, he was already working behind the scenes with Martha Friend over at Littlebrook [to] work with the university ... on getting [solar eclipse] viewers,” Barnes-Johnson said.
Carson, a 7th grade science teacher at Princeton Middle School, has a passion for Earth Science. He was previously a researcher in the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, and has worked with Princeton University’s Department of Geosciences. Given the two solar eclipses that were set to occur during the school year, Carson began planning early in the year.
“I’ve always been interested in science and ... astronomy. My first eclipse was probably back when I was in middle school ... we watched [it in] my backyard and my dad put together a little screen that we could project the sun onto. It was just such a fun time and I’ve seen other eclipses since that time ... I went to see the total eclipse in 2017 and it was pretty exciting,” said Carson.
He wanted to bring the celestial spectacle to his students, and allow everyone to experience this event, given that the next solar eclipse in mainland United States is in 20 years.
“I contacted the IMAP program and got in touch with people there. They had told me that  they had boxes of 1,500 viewers. I didn’t really need that many of them for the middle school  but then when I talked to Dr. Barnes-Johnson, I realized that 1,500 would be a good number for [PHS],” Carson said.
The solar eclipse glasses that were provided to PHS were the result of a partnership between the district and Princeton University, specifically the Astrophysics Department and IMAP. Barnes-Johnson hopes to build upon the schools’ connections in order to provide more stem-related opportunities for PPS students in the future. 
“[The glasses] were a complete donation, which is just beautiful ... I’m hoping to build on this so that we have several ways in which Princeton Public Schools can benefit from our close proximity with Princeton University. Making sure that we are able to capitalize in a meaningful way is key. My goal is to have more outreach opportunities where we can accept the outreach of the university and other organizations who want to support stem engagement,” Barnes-Johnson said.
With the university’s donation of the solar eclipse viewers providing a unique experience for students to safely view the eclipse, both Barnes-Johnson and Carson agreed that the opportunity was a chance for students to apply their scientific knowledge to phenomena in the real world. 
“We already spent some time modeling eclipses in the classroom but having this event happen makes it more real to [the students]. They could actually see some things we had talked about in the classroom ... which is truly really helpful in our science curriculum,” Carson said.

PHS watches the solar eclipse

The PHS Research Team, who were announced NJ State Winners in January, have advanced to the next stage of the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Competition. They now represent New Jersey as one of the ten national finalists, competing for the chance to win $100,000 worth of Samsung products for PHS.
“I mean, [qualifying for nationals] is a really good feeling. We worked really hard. And I think if you track our growth since September, it’s been amazing,” said Hayah Mian ’25, the lead psychologist of the team.
Between winning states and qualifying for nationals, the team has expanded the capabilities of their first prototype, a stuffed armadillo called Che’w that can teach the endangered Guatemalan language of Mam. At nationals, the team will be presenting at Samsung’s headquarters in Washington D.C. on April 29. 
“Our focus back then was just trying to make a prototype work, and I feel like now it’s trying to get the presentation [for nationals] together by working on the script and the video,” said Sofia Son ’25, one of the programmers on the team. “We [also] want to improve on the current prototype we’re going to present with.”
One of these improvements is the development of movement through motors. With the motors, the robot will be able to hug and wave, allowing for more animal-like movements and a more friendly appearance so that a user does not feel stressed or anxious when interacting with the robot. On the programming side, the team has focused on gathering enough language data so that the robot can maintain complex communications with users and vary its answers with AI and machine learning.
“At the moment, the robot is not intelligent. It doesn’t use machine learning or AI because we don’t have enough data,” said Debdeep Sen ’26, another programmer on the team. “Eventually we’ll have neural networks for the language once we have enough data, so it’ll actually understand what you’re saying.”
 In order to get this data, the team has partnered with indigenous Mam-speaking communities in Cajola, Guatemala; Oakland, California; and Morristown, New Jersey, as well as university professors from the University of Kansas and Princeton University.
As the team works on improving the functionality of the robots, they are also increasing the sustainability of their designs, which is one of the main goals of the project. Previously, they had created a stuffed armadillo, Chico, which was scrapped due to issues surrounding the ethics of the manufacturing process and sustainability of their material sourcing. Now, they are collaborating with Fluffmonger, a company that designs environmentally friendly plushies, which are then assembled in local Mam-speaking communities, including in Guatemala.
“We wanted to move towards a locally and more ethically soproduced solution ... and [Fluffmonger] just [sends] us these blueprints for making stuffed animals, and then we stitch [them together],” Son said.
The team uses cloth made from recycled materials and clothes that are hand-sewn by local communities. Post-competition, the team hopes to transform their project into an ethical and sustainable business.
“The plan is for [the project] to become a business model after the competition. Our goal is to teach younger research students and middle schoolers how to build the robots because we want to be able to teach our students digital literacy along with the different languages ... A lot of us in the project are juniors, so [after] next year we leave. We want to keep [the project] going at PHS,” Mian said. 

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